Radio communication systems, such as cellular systems (e.g., spread spectrum systems (such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks), or Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) networks), provide users with the convenience of mobility along with a rich set of services and features. This convenience has spawned significant adoption by an ever growing number of consumers as an accepted mode of communication for business and personal uses. To promote greater adoption, the telecommunication industry, from manufacturers to service providers, has agreed at great expense and effort to develop standards for communication protocols that underlie the various services and features. One key area of effort involves authentication. Authentication plays an important role in any communication system to ensure that communication is established between proper users or applications. Unfortunately, implementation of such standards may require modification of other protocols, which may be cost prohibitive, even if technically achievable.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach to provide authentication services without requiring altering of extant standard protocols or development of new protocols.